


Love So Softly

by lone_lilly



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 23:02:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17990147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lone_lilly/pseuds/lone_lilly
Summary: Post 15x15.Deluca doesn’t turn back time for her. He’s the first man she’s met that doesn’t make her feel like she’s cheating on her dead husband.





	Love So Softly

**Author's Note:**

> If you had told me 14 years ago I’d still be writing fic for this fandom, I would have thought you were nuts. But season 15 Meredith is different than all of the ones I’ve played with before. I wanted to get to know her better.

Her patient tells her to kiss the man that turns back time for her so she follows Deluca up to the roof because he reminds her of Derek.

Not just the way he looks at her, like he already knows how he wants to touch her and exactly how she’ll moan when he does. It’s everything, the honesty he shares with their patients, the way he lights up when he works with kids. The pure, unadulterated way he grieved for his girlfriend last year.

Not to mention the motorcycle. A particular part of Derek’s past she’d always regretted missing, and although she wouldn’t be caught dead on one now, she’d be lying if she said the image of Deluca riding up to the hospital decked out in leather and jeans didn’t work pretty hard for her.

He’s basically Derek before she met him. Unbroken and optimistic, safe and wild at the same time. He’s everything that drew her to her husband, when he was just a guy in a bar and she was just a girl trying to figure everything out.

So, she takes Natasha’s advice and she kisses Deluca on the roof of her hospital, losing herself in the solid warmth of his body pressed invitingly against hers, the dizzying scent of his cologne making her forget completely there was ever any other choice to be made.

It doesn’t occur to her until later, when she’s in bed alone and staring at the ceiling, that Natasha had it all wrong.

Deluca doesn’t turn back time for her. He’s the first man she’s met that doesn’t make her feel like she’s cheating on her dead husband. 

 

***

They go on dates and he does exactly the sort of cheesy things she used to pretend to hate. He brings her flowers. He texts her when he wakes up in the morning _and_ when he goes to bed. He looks at her like he might already love her a little, and it surprises her how much she likes it.

She feels consumed by this thing growing between them, her mind drifting to thoughts of him again and again throughout her day, distracting her when she’s meant to be bathing her children and making the hours in the O.R. seem endless.

It should terrify her. She knows how much is at stake, how much she stands to lose. 

But she also knows she will never have to tell the Daddy story at bedtime to children who don’t remember him, and maybe it’s because she’s done that impossible thing and lived through it that she feels so free to fall now.

 

***

The wait is blissful torture. 

Their jobs don’t stop just because her body is dying to know his, and she’d moved all three of her kids to the second floor of her home when her sisters moved out, so privacy is a novelty even when time might be on their side.

It seems every time they try to plan it, the universe plots against them, and she’d find it amusing if he wasn’t starting to look at her like if they don’t have sex soon he’s going to take her right there in the operating room.

God, she‘d probably let him if he tried. It’s been so very long since she felt this exquisite heat thrumming inside her, constant and unyielding. Even her own hands can’t extinguish the ache anymore.

Three weeks. It’s been three weeks and she already feels this desperate. She’s never going to survive their first night together.

 

*** 

It isn’t night at all, but a Thursday afternoon when it finally happens.

Their patient leaves AMA before their next surgery and suddenly they find themselves with three unscheduled hours to be filled.

Three hours when her house is blessedly empty and, oh, she can barely manage to dig the keys out of her purse before he’s on her, pushing her against the door, his fingers threading possessively through her hair as his mouth claims hers.

Her body responds instantly as she wraps her arms around him to pull him even closer, wanting desperately to melt against him, skin against burning skin.

His patience had been a point in his favor at first and she’s so grateful for it, but it’s this restless hunger she wants most from him now, and she anticipates the moment when he gets her inside, gets her naked and writhing up against him, right there in her foyer because neither of them can be bothered to wait any longer.

Except, Andrew Deluca is nothing but a surprise and after a moment he drags his mouth from hers and takes the keys from her hand, leaving her bereft and confused at the sudden loss of his body against hers.

She blinks at him stupidly as he opens the door for her instead of shoving her through it, but he offers her his hand instead, always a gentleman, fingers curling around hers as he leads her inside. 

He pauses at the foot of staircase to smile at her and, oh, she feels her heartbeat trip at the sight of it. 

It’s been a long time since she felt nervous taking a man to her bed, but then, she doesn’t normally wait this long either, does she?

She narrows her eyes at him bemusedly, and he seems to take her self-deprecation as impatience because he laughs softly and tugs her up the stairs.

Her bedroom door shuts behind them with a resolute click, demarcating the moment before and the moment now, separating her from everything else except the way this man looks at her and the thundering of her own heart in her ears as she waits for him to make his next move.

She doesn’t have to wait long.

“Finally,” he sighs in Italian at the same time she breathes his name, and then he’s kissing her again, pulling her body to his, his groan of relief to have her in his arms again making the inferno of desire roar up inside her.

 _Finally_ , indeed. 

Her bed is too far, too damn far, but they manage to cross the distance and she sinks to the mattress, bringing him with her, her body arching up against his before he can even settle his weight on top of her.

As it turns out, he meant what he’d said when he promised to never stop kissing her, because even now when she’s offering him so much more, he seems content to lose himself in the taste of her mouth, like three hours is infinity and they have all the time in the world. 

Except she is burning up for him, and she _knows_ he’s a good kisser, it’s the other things she wants to learn, like how his mouth feels everywhere and what sounds he’ll make when she takes him inside.

“Andrew,” she groans, only a little ashamed at the frustration bleeding in the word, so she tries it again, more sternly and less impatient, and she moves his hand from her neck to her breast to make sure he understands. “ _Deluca_.”

He laughs again, his eyes twinkling as he begins to touch her, and she really doesn’t know why she’s so drawn to these arrogant men who can totally undo her.

But then he abandons her mouth to drag her shirt over her head, and he gazess down at her with this sort of reverence that reminds her she can totally devastate him as well, and she remembers why.

He speaks Italian again, telling her she’s beautiful, and she has no choice but to believe him when he looks at her that way. 

He nudges the strap of her bra out of his way, baring her to his attention, and then his mouth is on her, hot and demanding and his hand is drifting lower, lower to find her, and, oh yes, this is exactly what she needs from him. 

Wants. Craves.

It isn’t long before he has her panting, ready to beg, the feel of his fingers stroking her through her pants so, so good but not nearly enough. Never enough.

To be fair though, it _has_ been awhile. 

She can feel his own arousal pressed against her, has felt the swollen weight of it before when he’s had her in his lap, and she reaches for him now, enjoys the soft growl he makes when she cups him through his jeans. 

“We need to be naked,” she tells him, the words ending sharply on a gasp as he teeth tease her nipple in the exact way that makes her shudder beneath him. “Like now.”

“Yes, Dr. Grey,” he murmurs,and she feels that grin of his against her skin as much as she hears it in his voice.

So, here’s the thing. 

She’d kind of always suspected Derek had a thing about being her boss, even though he pretended he didn’t. And she totally gets it now, because Andrew Deluca calling her Dr. Grey when his erection is throbbing in her hand sets off about a dozen fantasies they’ll be exploring later.

Later, she thinks giddily, and she can’t stop the laughter that bubbles up out of her. Later. 

And it’s as if the lazy, hazy spell they’re under is suddenly broken at the sound, because they’re both frantically tugging at clothes then, fingers and tongues seeking out places they’ve denied themselves over the last month until they are finally, wonderfully naked. 

She takes him in her hand, hot and bigger than she expected, and she guides him between her thighs, practically purring when he’s finally enveloped inside her.

Andrew, bless him, seems to understand the monumental importance of the moment, and he doesn’t move yet, giving her time to adjust to him, this, _everything_. 

He rests his forehead against hers and he breathes her name, forgetting to curb his accent, and it’s one of the most erotic sounds she’s ever heard. 

She responds by bringing her knees higher up his back, her fingers digging into his biceps.

“Are you going to move?” she asks wickedly, clenching around him. “Or do I need to show you what to do?” 

“I’m _trying_ to savor this moment,” he groans and she laughs again because he’s kind of a sap and she kind of loves it.

Loves him, too, maybe.

But he does move, finally, and so does she, and his mouth covers hers as she loses herself in all of him.

But maybe she finds herself, too.

 

***

Her children will be home soon. 

Like clockwork, Tanya will herd them all inside, setting them up in the kitchen for a snack and homework, keeping Ellis entertained so Zola and Bailey can concentrate. 

She’s not often home so early and she’s looking forward to spending this unexpected time with them.

But it means Andrew needs to be leaving soon and she finds the thought of that inexplicably unbearable. Three hours had seemed like such a delicious luxury earlier; but now, it just feels cruel to have to extricate herself from him so soon.

Especially when his body is chiseled and hard underneath her, and she can’t stop running her fingers over his pectoral muscles, feeling them shift with each breath he takes.

“Your body is ridiculous,” she tells him but not without appreciation and she feels his chest rumble with laughter against her cheek.

He’s pleased, though, she can tell. He’s not so arrogant enough that her compliments are expected and she likes that. It’s another thing of many that surprises her about him. 

Like how easy it is between them, this relationship. She can’t remember the last time she’s laughed so much, felt so light. It’s been years, certainly.

And she knows she should make him get up, get dressed. She needs a shower before the kids get home and he shouldn’t be there when they do.

Sighing, she props her chin on her hand, glancing up at him only to find he’s already staring down at her. He caresses her cheek, combing his fingers gently through her hair as he studies her face.

He likes her hair, she’s noticed. Derek always had too.

“I should go, huh?” he asks, as if he can read the indecision coursing through her.

“Probably,” she agrees softly, regretfully. She places a kiss against his chest in apology. 

He has been so good with her. So patient. She feels badly asking him to leave again. Selfish.

“Or I could stay,” he offers casually but she can feel his breath still, waiting for her to turn him down. “Make you and the kids some dinner?”

“You cook?” she scoffs, raising a pointed eyebrow at him.

“More than you,” he teases.

She forgets some times that he’d lived with her before, when his girlfriend moved away. He had been so different back then. So young and naive. Not at all the man she’s been getting to know the past few weeks, the one who has somehow managed to weasel his way into her every waking thought. And many of her dreamt ones too.

She should make him leave. It’s the responsible thing to do. But she could also let him stay. 

She wants him to stay.

“Okay,” she agrees hesitantly, surprised at herself now for giving in.

Although, maybe she shouldn’t be. In just a few short weeks, he’s somehow managed to undo all of the walls it’s taken her years to construct. 

“Okay,” he smiles, _beams_ really, and she feels her heart do that weird little dance again at the sight of it.

She knows what it means but she doesn’t tell him yet. Not yet.

But she will soon enough.


End file.
